Jason, love the gym set up. I can imagine the fun you and the crew have there.

This pic is a great reminder of what CrossFit is all about. Changing lives, and doing it right out of your garage. Not just competition.

Comment #3 - Posted by: Speal at February 25, 2012 6:05 PM

I just returned from Kenya, I was studying and working there. Great to see that CrossFit is improving the quality of life there- some of the hardest working people I've ever met live in Kenya, and I'm glad they're getting some help. Rock on!!

1) Smiles. A dog can smile. I've got two who've been grinning ear to ear all morning.

2) Simply happy. I'm not sure there's one single thing in my life that makes me as happy as Lil'bingo's little dog when she is chasing a ball. Unbridled joy. Wags her tail so hard her hind legs come off the ground. Every single time.

How cool would it be to have that kind of happy from something so simple, so tiny, so easy?

3) Recovery. In the lonely crucible of the solo athlete one is left to one's own devices for...well...pretty much everything. Reactive or proactive, it all emanates from within in one way or another. Nowhere is this more of a challenge, at least for me, than the concept of recovery.

What do you do for recovery, the process by which your body heals from your workout, the time during which you inculcate the gains, the net of which is hopefully on the plus side of the ledger? My bet is that you don't have a plan; you just go until you break physically or mentally/spiritually. It's only after a break or two that you (hopefully) sit down with a plan. Sound familiar?

In the lonely world of the solo athlete this is all an internal discussion. As a (very) part time trainer and (almost) full time advisor to a couple of young trainers I've also been a spectator with a front row seat watching other CrossFit athletes train in person. The two glaringly obvious observations are that 1) this stuff really works and 2) whoa, along with individual goal planning each one of those athletes needs an individual recovery plan.

It's been said that we stop progressing not so much through over-training but by under-recovering. Give some thought to this as you plan your fitness program. My bid is that you should be spending as much time thinking and planning for both work and recovery.

4) Character. I ended last week's "musings" with a thought about CrossFit and character. "CrossFit doesn't so much create character as expose it." I think the implication of this during a WOD is quite obvious; we see glimpses of an individual's true character during and after a WOD. Did they will themselves to that dark place where we find the magic of the program? Were they honest, counting every rep and striving for the virtuosity inherent in a perfect movement? Was their post-WOD analysis of the performance free of excuses and directed toward yet more improvement?

CrossFit tends to identify those character traits that lead to more of better, but to seek more of better requires that at least some of that character be in there to start.

I've found time and again that CrossFit and CrossFitters tend to benefit from something called "transference", the extension of a training benefit in one domain to another wholly different, unrelated domain. For example, I handle the stress inherent in my day job a full order of magnitude better now, despite the fact that my advancing age should produce just the opposite, because I have trained my ENTIRE stress response in the WOD, not just my physical.

As an extension of this the CrossFit community has almost always been a "live and let live" place. There's an assumption of goodwill among and between CrossFitters, those who've met and those yet to meet. As we've grown so, too, has grown the extent to which we encompass the vastness of the domain of differences that can exist between human beings. When CF was young you would find more of these vast differences co-existing under one roof; there were simply fewer roofs back then, eh? CrossFitting in common was enough to overcome almost all differences.

Now? The neighborhood has grown. You can do CrossFit among folks who share much more in common than just the WOD, a little island of CrossFitting homogeneity. Is this such a bad thing? Of course not, at least not on the surface. Where this becomes not such a good thing is when the OTHER, non-CrossFit similarities in one group become the focus, when it is NOT the CrossFit that defines what is or isn't held in common. This saddens me.

Think about this, won't you? As CrossFit grows there is simply no reason why this wonderful part of the whole experience, ignoring or forgiving our differences while focusing on the wonderful thing we share, must be lost to the growth. At least for all of us out here in the great "outdoors". So excited about something great about your CrossFit? Awesome! Sing it loud, but there's no reason to do so while knocking someone or something else. Someone else doing something really great? Cool! Tell everyone you know, don't try to bury it.

There will be times when something very real happens. Something bad, CrossFit related or not. Sad, but true. In these instances CrossFit, too, can reveal character. When that happens, whether you might have tossed the first grenade or simply returned fire, do be the one to stop. "Less said, sooner mended" as Mrs. bingo likes to say. It's way harder and really uncomfortable to do that, be the one who says 'enough', but you can do it. You do really hard stuff that makes you uncomfortable all the time, on purpose.

You do CrossFit.

I'll see you next week...

Comment #9 - Posted by: bingo at February 26, 2012 8:31 AM

Musings await...

Comment #10 - Posted by: bingo at February 26, 2012 9:43 AM

The current Individual Men's leader averaged one burpee every 2.61 seconds.

The current Individual Women's leader averaged one burpee every 3.04 seconds.

WOW.

Comment #11 - Posted by: J.T. at February 26, 2012 9:57 AM

Thank you CrossFit for providing me with an efficacious fitness program, some of the best friends I have ever made in my life and for the amazing experiences I have had as a result!

Comment #12 - Posted by: Olly at February 26, 2012 11:11 AM

Great burpee video at mobilitywod - too bad I didn't see it before doing the wod!

In the category of 'found crossfit-type stuff in an unexpected place' (and also 'I'm skeptical, do national and world-class coaches and athletes really do this stuff?')...from Seattle Times today, in a story about how Mike Leach is going about revitalizing the Washington State U. football team. Could call it Fight Gone Really Bad in Pullman, WA:

"So for eight days, from 10 p.m. to midnight, players...dashed madly between nine stations. They spent three minutes at each, got a minute's rest and broke to the next one. At one [station], they did updowns, push-ups and sit-ups. At another they did bear crawls. Elsewhere they grabbed a board and pushed it 20, 25 yards continuously around a cone. 'It was by far the most challenging thing I've done here [in 3 years of Division I college football],' said receiver Gino Simone. 'It's as fast-paced as you can believe. It was a culture shock, in a way.'"

Another player, safety Deone Bucannon, said, "I feel this is what we should have been doing two years ago."

Just what I want...four sweaty dudes working out in the street and slamming weights around. Great for the property value, but it is in California so no one is buying houses there anyway.

Comment #17 - Posted by: Adams at February 26, 2012 2:05 PM

Mark Fogle sounds mad at life. So sad!

Comment #18 - Posted by: Jim McHugh at February 26, 2012 4:58 PM

I am a man of faith. I have written that the absence of faith is a trip straight to madness. I am less a man of religions, at least of late. Red Jacket's words give me pause...

Comment #19 - Posted by: bingo at February 26, 2012 5:00 PM

Jim McHugh #18
Don't be sad for me, I'm very happy with my life! Whats the matter, you don't like people who object to close mindedness, and if someone defends everyone's freedom of choice you label them as angry. Guess our forefathers were angry too, they told the King to stick it, they were free to believe what they wanted too.

Comment #20 - Posted by: Mark Fogle at February 26, 2012 6:11 PM

much needed recovery day. My back is trashed from the "zimmerman".

Comment #21 - Posted by: Chris at February 27, 2012 12:35 AM

Thoughtful responses to the gospel, like Red Jacket's, are best embraced and engaged rather than categorically dismissed. In fact his "wait and see" attitude is a most reasonable approach. The wisdom of the gospel is Christ, and can be mysterious to the unfamiliar. Give people time to consider, give the witnesses time to pray. Nothing wrong with that.

Comment #22 - Posted by: David at February 28, 2012 1:49 PM

I appreciate that CF is trying to provide a wider approach to life than just "exercise", by providing essays, short stories, music, etc. I enjoyed reading Red Jacket's proclamation. Keep it up.

Comment #23 - Posted by: Steve at March 1, 2012 4:14 AM

This looks like so much fun. Just like when I was a kid playing outside with my brothers, cousins and friends.